I think the greatest gift my mother passed on to me was the ability to see potential, potential in the broken, battered, everyday items, as she always found a way to work her magic and make them beautiful. I remember as a young girl watching her take apart an upholstered sofa that definitely was worn, weary and weak in its current state.   When I asked her what she was doing, she told me that she was going to re-cover it with new beautiful fabric! I said, “Do you know how to do that?” She replied, “No, but I will figure it out as I go.”  Millions of staples and upholstery tacks later, she had pattern pieces to work with in order to guide her along on her “new and improved” journey.   I admired her “chase fear to the curb” kind of attitude in all that she did in her life.  I try to live that way everyday.

Speaking of everyday, I decided to do a special project for this blog.  Taking a few everyday items from my local dollar store I combined them with some spectacular pieces from the Relics & Artifacts collection, a self-imposed challenge of sorts.

Materials Needed:
Relics & Artifacts Coquille
Metal substrate
Acrylic paint
Trims
Filigree trims
Small glass vial
Map portion
Assorted mini beads and sea glass
Ribbon and wire to wrap handle on substrate
Adhesive
Stencil
Texture paste
glitter
Spray inks, blue, green.

Directions:

Apply brown acrylic paint to Coquille shells.  

Wipe off immediately with a soft cloth, leaving a nice aged patina to start creating with.

Using a blue acrylic paint, paint the metal substrate and let dry. Choose a watery looking stencil and use texture paste and spray inks to add some color on to the metal substrate.  Let dry.  

Add trim to the outside of the substrate for more texture and place shells and filigrees in place. Using a bit of white glue, add a touch of glitter on the waves for reflection and interest. 

Glue shells on with a strong adhesive and then embellish each one with treasures inside the shells.  Wrap rope handle with wire and ribbons and add a few beads to dangle at one ends of the handle.  

Let dry overnight and enjoy a watery feeling art piece made from simply Mixing It Up!!!!!